"A mile outside Waycross, I and a handful of others heading west waited. A freight train rumbled slowly toward us, its stack belching black smoke as the fireman worked up a full head of steam. We scrambled aboard any open car we could catch. The train started picking up speed. Then two long toots of the engine whistle let us know the train was going to "highball" run wide open. There's a lot to be said about traveling in a boxcar, especially an empty one. You can get up and walk around or even trot. You can sing, holler and shout. You disturb no one, if you're alone. Through the wide open door you can watch the countryside go by; you can smell the country air mingled with the odor of sulfur, as the fireman piles more soft coal onto the fire. When it rains, there's a roof over your head. When the wind howls, you can always close the door a wee bit more to keep out the gusts and the cold."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Freighthopping
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Freighthopping
6 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Freighthopping →
Related Quotes
"Railroading in those years was very dangerous for train and engine crews, but incomparably more so for hoboes. Beside…"
"I could see men of all colors bouncing along in the boxcar. We stood up. We laid down. We piled around on each other.…"
"Throughout the entire trip we were compelled by poverty to steal rides on freight cars. Nothing we could do about tha…"
"On my first trip, my friend and I traveled the first leg on top of a boxcar. That is not a particularly relaxing way …"
"We ran across the tracks and slid down the embankment across from the station and down the gully, out of sight of the…"
"More than 45 million people live, work, or attend school within 300 feet of a major transportation facility in the Un…"
"... Many bird species use acoustic communication to establish and maintain their territories and for intra-pair and a…"
"Noise pollution is expanding at an unprecedented rate and is increasingly associated with impaired reproduction and d…"
"Road-traffic noise significantly slows the development of crucial memory and attention skills in primary school child…"
"Underneath this sable herse Lyes the subject of all verse."